What’s the screen like? I upgraded the panel on both my thinkpads so I can help if you have questions :)
E14 are pretty modern so I can’t think of many useful mods, maybe ugrading the speakers? It’s something I want to try on my T440S
Anyway congrats on your lappy, hope you enjoy it for many years to come
I’ve found that L and E series seemingly mirror the T line but with a couple of years of delay, so overall with time it gets worse repairability wise, but gets better with things like 16:10 screen aspect ratio.
I haven’t researched the 2024 T series, is it noteworthy other than having some models with ram slots? Feels like some hype is going on. In any case, expect ~2026 L,E series to have similarly constructed models.
Long story short: nowadays 65W-capable USB C powerbanks make more sense in my opinion, than multiple Thinkpad batteries. And they work with all laptops.
Yep just like the S versions they have a double battery. This is great because the total can get close to 100Wh (when using the 72Wh external) but hot-swapping requires an internal battery in good shape which is not so easy to come by. From Lenovo they can be very expensive or not available. From third parties you’re always gambling that those batteries will play nice with the proprietary Thinkpad EC.
I bought both (3rd-party) batteries for a T440S, and the internal would suddenly show up as 0% every couple of weeks, and had to be “reset” by opening the base, unplugging and plugging it in…in the end I just put the original internal back; the external has been amazing instead, and it does basically all of the work since it’s the 72Wh version. Fun fact: these laptops work perfectly with only one of the batteries attached.
I’d say no more than 200$ for the T480. Since you mentioned portability, it’s not very portable compared to the S models of the T series and even less to the X series.
One advantage of the t480 is having two memory slots for easy and cheap ram upgrades, with all others you have to make sure they have at least 16gb (or 8gb soldered on one side)
The portability carries a big bump in price, if you see a cheap T480S, X1 carbon 6th, X390, you might be happier with those.
We also have to consider that from 300$ upwards we are talking Ryzen Zen 2 (used) prices, maybe from the L series but you might catch the occasional T14 AMD for 400$ which is a considerable upgrade in every metric.
Hi, have you tried acetone? Chemically (propanone) it seems very similar to isopropyl alcohol but maybe it’s different enough…never tried on a thinkpad but on other stuff it always worked for me.
Also maybe the cloth/paper you were using did not pick up enough, you need to actually remove the material (used to make plastic “soft to the touch”) that became sticky.
No I mean a USB C to Lenovo Square tip (the name of that Lenovo yellow plug) adapter, no USB A involved.
USB C PD charger > USB C - C cable > adapter > laptop. I’ve done this on many thinkpads, the only thing is if you use a small charger (45W or less) and have a big battery or the laptop uses a lot of watts, it might not charge or charge only when off. With 65W you’re good, and with GaN tech they are tiny nowadays
This is also so you can also charge your phone tablet or anything else usb C while traveling with only one charger
Hello, I’m seeing a T540P W540 W541 “Power Jack cable” available for less than 5 bucks (aliexpress, ebay, etc). The cable has the charging port and a connector that goes on the mobo so should be a pretty easy fix, no soldering.
Do you have the HMM (hardware maintenance manual) downloaded to double check?
Btw you don’t need the whole “lenovo square tip” charger if you have a 20V capable USB C PD charger (65W or more), you can get a 3 bucks adapter, I use it all the time it works perfectly.
Just realized that my first comment went on a week old discussion, oops :P
It might surprise you but my main laptop is a 9yr old thinkpad, even tho I have newer ones. Of course it can run win10, I daily drive linux but occasionally use windows from a usb ssd enclosure (installed with winTousb). I bought it almost as a joke 4-5yrs ago, but upgrade after upgrade (the screen especially which was crap) it became too good to replace lol
Nobody answered yet so I’ll try :D
Grab whatever best deal you’ll find, because prices on the used market, especially for 5+year old devices, don’t always follow a logic. So make sure to look out for the X390, X13, L13 yoga, etc, as well. Newer but they might be cheaper!
Personally I never bought Yogas so cant comment on that vs regular thinkpad. I had a touch T480 but the display was too dim to use outside (so I put a bright 1440p panel on it).